For me, its not just about making beer to get drunk, its creative, like cooking.
"How do I make a tasty Oatmeal Stout, or Bourbon Barrel Old Ale"?
"A Lambic Sour Beer sounds interesting, maybe I'll try that".

Its also about science. Yeast biology (also bacteria). Physics (heat transfer, currents, pumps, wort chillers). Chemistry (water chemistry, and how it affects the yeast and beer).

Its also about building things. I'm not a DIYer, but i built an enclosed swamp cooler and dip tube for my bottling bucket. Others have created far more intricate devices.

It's social. We can share our creation and discuss methods.

Its not static, new things are being "discovered" (at least by me). Such as Brew in a bag, No Chill, Hop Stand, First Wort Hopping to name a few.

My biggest motivation is - I like good beer, and most micro breweries do not make good beer, they make ok beer. I want to be able to brew really tasty beer. If I cant get to that point in another couple of years I will be disappointed.

Same as you arclight, I'm a mechanic by trade and started at a very young age at that and love tinkering, coming up with new ways of making things work better or how they work at that, many of times I've torn apart a brand new item to my moms dismay just to see how it works, took a few years for her to realize that it always works again. Now I'm on to building a kegerator as cheap as possible, can get everything quite readily, but at a cost, but what's the fun of that.

I like the social aspect of it. Some of my other hobbies are like that but not to the easy extent. I used to play Warhammer way back when. After amassing several thousand dollars in metal, moving a few times and having a hard time finding places to play, it all went on eBay. I still sort of play Magic but it's hard because my schedule to get out to a store. Plus is money intensive more so than brewing.

I can always find someone to come over on brew day, have a few and help out. Hell, I can always find someone, just about anytime of day, to grab a home brew with. plus, this might be cheese but, my girl friend likes brewing and bottling and the hobby is something that we share. Pretty sure it's the only real hobby we share too. She's not too interested in Magic

For me, its not just about making beer to get drunk, its creative, like cooking.
"How do I make a tasty Oatmeal Stout, or Bourbon Barrel Old Ale"?
"A Lambic Sour Beer sounds interesting, maybe I'll try that".

Its also about science. Yeast biology (also bacteria). Physics (heat transfer, currents, pumps, wort chillers). Chemistry (water chemistry, and how it affects the yeast and beer).

Its also about building things. I'm not a DIYer, but i built an enclosed swamp cooler and dip tube for my bottling bucket. Others have created far more intricate devices.

It's social. We can share our creation and discuss methods.

Its not static, new things are being "discovered" (at least by me). Such as Brew in a bag, No Chill, Hop Stand, First Wort Hopping to name a few.

My biggest motivation is - I like good beer, and most micro breweries do not make good beer, they make ok beer. I want to be able to brew really tasty beer. If I cant get to that point in another couple of years I will be disappointed.

I agree with all of this. The science aspect of brewing really appeals to me. The first batch I made, as soon as the airlock started bubbling I pulled my wife into the room, pointed at it and said, "Look, science!!"

I like the social aspect of it. Some of my other hobbies are like that but not to the easy extent. I used to play Warhammer way back when. After amassing several thousand dollars in metal, moving a few times and having a hard time finding places to play, it all went on eBay. I still sort of play Magic but it's hard because my schedule to get out to a store. Plus is money intensive more so than brewing.

I can always find someone to come over on brew day, have a few and help out. Hell, I can always find someone, just about anytime of day, to grab a home brew with. plus, this might be cheese but, my girl friend likes brewing and bottling and the hobby is something that we share. Pretty sure it's the only real hobby we share too. She's not too interested in Magic

Hey if she can accept Magic AND brewing, you need to hold on tight. That is a high level of nerddom right there!

+1 for me to all the above reasons. I guess it's in my blood to want to tinker and express my creativity (same goes with why i'm becoming moderately tattooed). I also thought that it would bring my few friends a little closer since we've all kinda gone our separate ways, but they don't really seem all that interested or are too busy. Thankfully the girlfriend enjoys it and is starting to take an active role in helping on brew day.